World champion shows new F1 car
Red Bull team boss Horner appears for the first time after the allegations
February 15, 2024, 9:30 p.m
Christian Horner is said to have behaved inappropriately towards an employee of the Formula 1 team Red Bull Racing. Despite the ongoing investigation, the team boss will be present at the presentation of the car for 2024. It is his first public appearance since the allegations became known.
Team boss Christian Horner appeared publicly for the first time since the allegations became known at Red Bull Racing and once again “completely” rejected the allegations. “There is obviously this investigation that I am taking on, in which I am fully cooperating,” said the 50-year-old during the presentation of Red Bull’s new Formula 1 car: “But all of this is happening inside Background.”
For the team, a few days before the start of the season on March 2nd in Bahrain, it was basically “business as usual”, but the topic was “inevitably a distraction”. The racing team remains “very united, everyone is focused on the new season,” said Horner in small press meetings at the Red Bull factory in Milton Keynes, England. The investigation will “hopefully be completed in the near future,” but there is no time frame.
Horner, boss of world champion Max Verstappen, is said to have behaved inappropriately towards an employee. This accusation has been around for a week and a half, but nothing more is known. There has already been intense speculation about Horner’s impending removal.
The Red Bull Racing team had not yet commented on the situation at all, but the Red Bull Group initiated an “independent investigation” by an “external investigative lawyer” and confirmed this. The support from the team was “remarkable and unbelievable,” said Horner, and he also received “enormous” support from the group.
Horner was heard on this matter for hours last Friday. It may be weeks before the matter is clarified – regardless of the Formula 1 schedule. The test drives in Bahrain are scheduled for next week (February 21st to 23rd), where they start a week later ter then also the new season. For Red Bull it is the 20th in the history of the racing team, which has already produced the driver world champion seven times. Horner has been team boss since his debut in 2005 and also had the say in Milton Keynes during Sebastian Vettel’s world championship titles (2010 to 2013).